How to Build a Giant Power Station Without Spending a Cent

In South Africa, building enough electricity generation to power 2 million homes is the sort of thing that can undermine the entire state.

Since work began in 2007, the Medupi and Kusile coal power stations — at 4.8 gigawatts each, some of the largest generators ever conceived— have become emblems for the chronic problems plaguing sub-Saharan Africa’s most developed economy. Nearly a decade late and billions over budget, the 300 billion rand ($15.8 billion) plants are mired in a welter of alleged corruption and mismanagement, will never turn an economic profit, and still haven’t been finished. Their parlous state, and the impact on crumbling state-owned utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd., is one of the many reasons why credit ratings companies downgraded the country’s debt to junk status six years ago. 1